Unlucky for some? 13 civil servants offered pay-outs this year

Thursday 03 September 2020

13 States employees have been offered pay-outs on leaving this year, the average being more than £58,000.

Although that is one fewer than 2019, the average pay-out that year was just £22,000.

The figures have been released in response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request asking for pay-out data for the past four years.

They show that this year has had the highest average medium pay-out since 2017, with the next highest being £35,588 in 2017, when there were six pay-outs.

When using the average payment, the Government spent more than a three-quarters of a million pounds on pay-outs last year. That is slightly less than 2018’s £772,000 total, which funded 27 pay-outs, with each member of staff receiving an average payment of £28,600.

Pictured: Payments made to staff exiting the Government in recent years. (GoJ)

In total, since 2017 there have been 60 pay-outs to exiting civil servants, with an average payment of £34,000.

Of those 60 departures, five were in the £100,000 - £200,000 salary bracket, and the same number were in the £80,000 - £100,000 band. Most pay-outs (25) were between £30,000 and £50,000.

No information is given on the reasons for the pay-outs but the FoI response lists why people have left, which includes voluntary and compulsory redundancy, dismissal and resignation. 

The findings come after Express reported last month that civil servants were offered cash in return for settling claims against Government on more than 50 occasions over the past two-and-a-half years.

While compromise agreements often contain a confidentiality clause, they are not the same as non-disclosure agreements, whose sole purpose is to prevent individuals from sharing certain bits of information.

Pictured: Prison Governor Nick Governor's resignation was confirmed by the Government last month.

The use of both types of agreement within government has long been a contentious issue, but was raised again this summer following the sudden resignation of Prison Governor Nick Cameron after Express revealed a fall-out with the Justice and Home Affairs Department over its alleged "lack of support" for HMP La Moye inmates and staff throughout the pandemic.

When his resignation was confirmed, neither Mr Cameron, the Government or the Home Affairs Minister would comment on the circumstances surrounding his departure, leading to strong concerns from politicians tasked with scrutinising the government that an NDA had been put in place.